Powerful fare search products are currently used by travel providers to offer their customers a wide range of low fare travel solutions in response to requests. Thanks to the continued increase in the power of data processing equipment, these products are able to combine a very large number of fares with a large number of possible itineraries with a view to finding the least expensive travel solution corresponding to the customer's request.
This type of low fare search product represents an increasingly higher market share in the field of the travel marketing industry. One consequence of the generalised use of such search tools is the negative impact it is having on the profits of the travel provider. In fact, despite the attraction of such tools for customers and the inherent increase in turnover, a reduction in profitability is observed for a given travel request because only the lowest fare is offered.
To counter this trend towards systematic searching for the lowest fare and to remain profitable, the travel providers currently need to achieve incentive sales of their travel seats by showing the additional services that can be purchased at higher fares. At the same time, in order to remain competitive, they also need to offer the lowest fares possible to capture the clientele in this type of market, particularly through the direct marketing Internet sites.
Generally direct marketing of the provision of travel services is based on systems known as “Low fare search”, and offers several low fare travel solutions. However, these products only target the supply of travel solutions at the types of rates that offer the lowest fares without offering any alternative, particularly the types of rates that satisfy the needs of incentive sales of travel providers. Generally speaking, the travel providers are therefore able to supply a large number of travel solutions at low fares but cannot offer solutions that cover several rate classes for the same travel itinerary to reflect different levels of travel restriction (e.g. non-refundable, refundable with costs, refundable, or even without any restriction) and/or various additional services (e.g. type of cabin). Therefore the customer is unable to compare different competing solutions offered with different restrictions and additional services, which means that this type of higher range fare is much less commonly reserved, resulting in a loss of profit to the travel provider.
Document WO-A2-01 13299 discloses an on-line reservation system that is capable of offering the services traditionally provided by traditional travel agents. At the request of the user, which includes an indication of dates and travel itineraries, the system creates a list of fixed fare travel offers. The offers returned to the customer are organised on the screen according to a fare scale (called a Fare Ladder) that enables the offers to be listed in ascending order of selling price. The term “fare” corresponds here to a selling price level.
This type of system adopts a traditional search method called “Low fare search”, which shows the lowest available selling prices first.
The administrator of the on-line travel agency cannot himself manage the results of available travel offers issued by the central system (so-called CRS, standing for Computer Reservation System). In particular, he cannot organise them according to “types of fare”, which he himself controls. The only organisation produced is an ascending classification by “selling price”.
The on-line travel agent representative is also technically dependent on the fare scale organisation (the central fare database) of the central system of the primary travel provider (airline, CRS).